HλLF LIFE
by TokoStudio
Summary: When things go wrong during a standard test at the Black Mesa Research Facility, Gordon Freeman must overcome his fears and help his fellows escape from the complex. A retelling of the story outlined by Valve.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

He opened his eyes, and for a moment the darkness that greeted him convinced the man he had gone blind. But he quickly dismissed his fear and realized that he had simply ended up in some kind of cave. His adjusting eyes confirmed this as he slowly registered vague shapes of rocks in the dark, and the wet walls of the chamber. He imagined the smell of the thick underground air, though the suit he wore prevented him from using his nose. And the sound...

_I see you..._

A voice seemed to echo from behind him. He spun around as quickly as he could in the heavy suit to search for the source of the sound. With his left hand he flipped a switch on the chest of his suit and immediately the light built into the metal outfit illuminated a small conic section of the chamber in front of him. He turned slowly, using the light to scan the area for any presence besides himself. But as far as he could tell he was the only thing alive in this cave. He stopped and listened. His helmet picked up the noises around him and played them through a set of speakers inside. The sound of dripping water, slightly canned, was the only thing that met his ears.

After a minute had passed with no change he was forced to conclude that the strange voice had merely been in his head, a trick of the mind. He'd never liked caves. Irrational, perhaps, especially considering he was a man of science and reason. But there was something about their dark, echoey passages that had always run a chill up his spine.

No matter. It was time to do what he had come here for. There was a lot riding on this, and he couldn't screw up the project. Not now, when they had done so much, and with so much more that they had yet to do. The discoveries they'd made would go down in history, there was no doubt. The world would soon be a different place.

He shook his head. No time for daydreaming. He needed to get out of this cave and find the area he was supposed to have come out in. It couldn't be too far: refluxes in the system had been known to misalign trajectories before, but never more than a few dozen meters or so. There was likely an exit close by, just around a corner.

He remembered suddenly that he was supposed to be keeping an audio log of his progress. He pressed a button on his chest panel just below the switch that controlled the flashlight. A computerized female voice played through the helmet speakers.

"_Audio log system activated. Awaiting voice command._" He would skip out his little scare from earlier. Imaginary voices were hardly relevant to the log.

"Record," he said into the microphone built into the helmet. A symbol appeared in the upper-left corner of the display on the inside of the helmet visor, indicating the system was recording.

"This is Dr. Mark Cory with the Black Mesa Research Facility, Lambda Sector. The teleport was successful, though slight interference has dropped me in a cave of some sort, I assume not very far from my intended destination. I am going to try to locate a way out and get my bearings."

Using the light to avoid bumping into any of the rocks adorning all sides of the cave, Cory began making his way forward through the darkness. Rounding several corners he began to notice an upward incline in the ground. A good sign: he was probably nearing the surface now.

Around another corner he spotted a faint light up ahead of him. His pace quickened as he yearned to get out of the strange dark cavern. But he realized as he came closer that the light was not coming from outside, but was created by a large crystal formation jutting out of the wall. He came up to it and examined the glowing stone. It gave off a deep yellow hue, and seemed to hum with energy.

Cory's breath stopped short. It was a crystal like this that he was after in the first place. But this specimen was at least three times the size of any they'd collected so far. He hadn't even imagined such a size could exist in a stable form.

"I...I seem to have found one of the crystals growing here in the cave, but...it's enormous! I'm taking a sample to verify it's the same type of structure we've been studying..."

He pulled a small drill-like tool out of a section of the suit. The thing was small, but here in the cave it could reverb off the walls of the passage fairly loudly. He pressed another switch on his suit, disabling the audio in the helmet, and began cutting out a cylinder from the crystal about the size of his finger with the drill. About a minute later the cylinder was nearly loose.

_Human..._

He stopped drilling. Was it that odd voice again? He looked around. Nothing moved in the passage. No, it must just be his imagination, as he had turned off the speakers to drown out the noise of the drill.

He resumed drilling, and soon he was holding the sample in his glove. He put the drill back and pulled out another piece of equipment, what looked like a sort of voltage meter, with two wires sticking out. He clamped the wires on to the cylindrical crystal sample and pressed a button on the device. After a moment it beeped. Cory's eyes went wide.

"My god, the sample is entirely beyond the levels of the others. We'll need to get a team here immediately. This is amazing, I..."

He stopped. Something had moved; he'd seen it just out of the corner of his eye. He dropped the device and turned around. The passage still seemed empty, and he could hear nothing but his own quick breath. He remembered that the helmet speakers were still muted, and switched them back on. The sound of dripping water returned, and the buzz of the crystal, but there was something else, a hissing noise reverberating off the passage walls. It grew louder, and louder, until it overpowered every other sound. It was deafening, painful. Cory groped for the mute toggle, but the sound was disorienting him. He tried to walk forward and stumbled over a rock, landing hard on the ground. Something snapped in the suit, and the flashlight went out, and, much to Cory's relief, so did the helmet audio.

He lay there, his head spinning, until at last the effects of the hissing noise faded. He tried to flip on the light, but the suit's power was dead. He ought to be more worried, being stuck on the ground, no power to move, but he was still in a state of relief from the lack of that horrid sound. He didn't think he'd mind just laying here for a while, enjoying the silence...

_DIE...Human..._

And then he felt it. Something moving across the suit. _Several _somethings crawling in towards him. His breathing increased, and as it became harder to take a breath, he realized that without power his suit's air intake had closed and the oxygen in his helmet was growing thin. He had no idea what sort of strange creatures were surrounding him, but he had no choice. He ripped the helmet off. The hissing sound returned full force, and he thought his head would explode from the noise. He screamed as the creatures swarmed in on his exposed head, so loud he never realized that the hissing had ceased. And suddenly his screams stopped, and as the echoes faded away into the dark, the cave became as silent as before, broken only by the small hum of the crystal, and the sound of water dripping on the motionless metallic suit.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

**In the Barrel**

Goddamn alarm clocks. He hated them, every single one. Especially the clock currently blaring by his bedside. It had gone off a good half hour too late. At least he thought it had; he'd been pretty groggy that morning, a result of the party the night before, which had left him with a slight headache. The noise of the alarm did nothing to improve this. The incessant beeping was playing havoc with his currently sensitive head. He finally managed to slam a hand down on the thing, then grabbed his glasses off the the table beside him and moved quickly to the bathroom.

Gordon Freeman looked at his face in the mirror. He didn't look like much of a scientist, not a normal one in his particular field at any rate. His trimmed beard and hair tied back into a small ponytail were, as far as he was aware, unique amongst theoretical physicists. He was also one of the youngest ones he knew of. Most of the more esteemed figures were well into their forties or fifties. Gordon had turned twenty-seven just last month, though he'd been interested in this field of science since high school. It was in his college days at MIT, however, that he'd gotten his first real taste of the study that would become his passion: teleportation.

That was the whole reason he'd accepted the job here at the Black Mesa Research Facility in the first place. After graduating from MIT he'd been disappointed by the lack of proper research projects into teleportation technology. Black Mesa was one of the few facilities really studying the subject.

This wasn't exactly public knowledge though. He doubted he ever would have even known about it, if it hadn't been by chance that his old mentor Dr. Isaac Kleiner was assigned as a lead scientist on the study at Black Mesa. He'd offered Gordon a position at the facility, and of course he had leaped at the chance without hesitation.

Though sometimes he wondered if he ought to have been so quick about his decision. Black Mesa may have had access to some of the latest advances in teleportation technology, but the facility itself was located in the middle of nowhere, an abandoned missile testing complex isolated in the desert of New Mexico, revamped into a government research center. He missed his college days in Massachusetts. Sure, MIT wasn't exactly the kind of place that threw wild parties, but at least there was real civilization nearby. Even his post-grad in Innsbruck was more lively than this. He yearned for a little more change, a little more action to break up the monotonous pace of Black Mesa.

But every now and then he managed to convince some of his fellows to throw a decent party, though, he suspected, much to the annoyance of some of the senior staff members. He'd once sent an invite to the administrator himself, Dr. Breen. He never got a reply, but he'd sworn Breen had thrown him a nasty look when next he'd seen him.

Something he'd have to put up with a great deal more if he was late today. There was quite a bit of tension about today's test, though he had no idea why. Nobody told him much about any of the various tests they performed on a regular basis. Gordon was just a research assistant, and lacked the "need to know" as so many had explained to him impatiently. That was the problem with these government types: too many secrets.

He did have a few friends amongst the scientists though. Dr. Kleiner had been his college professor at MIT, and the two had always enjoyed each other's company. There was also Dr. Eli Vance. At first he and Gordon had been minor rivals, Eli being a Harvard man, but now the two were close pals. Eli worked with him in Sector C, and shared his passion for teleportation. The two often spent lunch breaks working on ideas for improvements to Black Mesa's current experiments.

Then there were a number of scientists that Gordon vaguely knew, but got along well with: Gina Cross and Colette Green, both of Sector C like himself; Gabe Bond and Carl Simmons in the Bio labs; and of course Mark Cory down in Lambda Core. He hadn't seen Cory in some time, though. He'd been told the man had quit several weeks before. It seemed odd that Mark would have done so without saying a word to Gordon. He'd met Mark at one of the rare parties, wondering around drunk, complaining about neckties to whomever he could find. The two had hit it off pretty well, he'd thought, at least enough to warrant a good-bye before going away.

Gordon looked at the clock.

"Shit." It was already 8:20, and he was supposed to be suiting up by now. As part of his assignment for today's test he was to wear one of the Hazardous Environment Suits, or HEVs as most called them. They were immensely strong powered metal suits designed to protect their user from any danger that could crop up in the test chamber. It seemed like overkill to him though. He'd done dozens of these sorts of experiments before without any problems. But hey, he wasn't paying for it. If the government wanted to pour money into a neat looking toy, who was he to complain?

He finished getting ready, and grabbed his lab coat and I.D. off a hanger by his dorm door, quickly putting them on as he ran out. He jogged through the halls of the science staff dormitories, stopping only briefly to swipe his I.D. card through a scanner in order to open the dorm exit. He stepped through as the large metal door slid open and entered the cavernous transport sector.

It always amazed him just how big this place was. Only a small section of the monstrous facility, the transport area easily dwarfed any train station on the surface. He'd been absolutely floored by the sheer size his first day, and more than once he'd found himself misplaced in the seemingly endless tunnels. He knew it far better now, but still he had a nagging fear of getting lost permanently in here.

He started jogging faster across the metal and concrete walkways surrounding the network of rails the transit cars moved on as they made their journeys here and there throughout the facility. He had to hurry and get to the nearby stop before the 8:30 resident train left, the last one headed to Sector C that morning.

"Gordon! Hey!" A voice called out his name from behind. He recognized the voice immediately: it was Barney Calhoun, a security guard here at Black Mesa, and more importantly Gordon's friend since high school. They'd gone separate ways in college, but kept in contact. It was another positive of working here, and another reason Gordon had been inclined to accept a position at the facility. Both technically worked in Sector C, but their differing duties made talking on the job a rare occurrence, Gordon working in the testing labs, and Barney patrolling the halls or assisting science staff in more labor-intensive tasks. But after work the two would hang out in the residential areas.

"Hey Barney," Gordon replied, stopping and turning around. "What's going on?" Barney, in full security uniform with his blue helmet and black bulletproof vest bearing the logo of Black Mesa, was walking toward him, likely on his way from the Security dorms to catch the 8:30 train just as Gordon was, though unlike himself Barney was right on time, as usual.

"Well, you're running late," said Barney. "But what else is new?" He smiled.

"I swear, my clock is broken, it woke me up late."

"Just like every other time," said Barney. He chuckled. "You sure it wasn't that party last night?"

"You mean the one you never showed up to?"

"I told you Gordon, I couldn't, I've been put on the Blue Shift now, I have to do rounds at that hour."

"That's too bad man, you really missed out."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Barney.

"Gina was there..." Gordon said, winking.

"Aw, shut it Gordon." Barney rubbed his neck, slightly embarrassed.

"Come on, Barn, you know you can't resist a woman in an HEV suit."

"If that were true, I'd have married you."

"Ouch, that hurt man." They both laughed. Barney looked down at his watch.

"Oh damn, I'd better get going, and you're going to be late...more than usual, anyway."

"Don't worry, we'll take the 8:30 down to Sector C."

"Ah, actually I'm not going down there today Gordon," said Barney.

"Why not?"

"Can't believe I forgot to tell you, we had a server crash just this morning."

"Which ones?"

"_All_ of 'em, everything went down."

Gordon whistled. He'd heard of sections going down every now and then, but the whole facility? There were so many failsafes in place he'd thought it impossible, but they must have all shutdown somehow.

"Things are back up now," said Barney, "but there's still a lot of glitches in the system. I'm headed down to Level Four to help some guys with malfunctioning elevators." He pointed at the security door just ahead, which led down into the lower levels of the main facility.

"Have fun with that. I've got samples to transport, should be a hoot." The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable. Gordon's job as a lowly assistant consisted basically of pushing samples in and out of the test chamber. Eventually he'd be given more responsibility, but for now he had little role in the real analysis of the experiments.

"Yep, looks like we're both in the barrel today," chuckled Barney. Gordon nodded, smiling. A train car pulled up on the rail by the platform a few meters ahead. Gordon stepped on as the doors opened. After a few moments they closed again, and the train started to move forward along the rail. As he began to pull away he noticed Barney banging on the security door, which was apparently jammed.

"That's Black Mesa for you," Gordon shouted at him, "they spend millions on a damn suit, but they can't even fix a door!"

Barney gave up knocking and laughed. "Hey," he shouted back, "meet me at the cafeteria later, I'll buy you a beer."

Gordon gave him a thumbs up. "I'll hold you to that!"

The car pulled around a corner and Barney went out of sight. The automated announcement system began playing through a speaker in the train car, announcing some current events and relaying the temperature and time. 8:47. No way was he going to make it on time. He'd catch a lot of flack over this one. He'd probably be getting paperwork for weeks. What else could go wrong today?


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

**Anomalous Materials**

The train continued on its path at a leisurely pace, despite Gordon's attempts at willing it to go faster. He eventually resigned to take a seat and wait out the journey. As long as the train didn't make any more stops, he shouldn't be too late.

As if the car was bent on upsetting him even further, it began at once to slow down as it approached a platform. _Perfect_, thought Gordon, _every other day I ride this thing alone, and the one time I'm this late somebody decides to show up_. He knew that it was really _his_ fault for being so late in the first place, but he always preferred finding someone else to blame. And who was this man boarding the train anyway? He wore a cheap blue business suit and tie, and held a small briefcase tightly in his right hand. His short-cut hair gave the impression of a man who dealt all in business, with little care for anything not in his interests. A representative of some large company, perhaps, or more likely a government agent, here to inspect the facility. If he was riding this train, there was no doubt he was headed for Sector C, as the Anomalous Materials Labs, where Gordon worked, was its last stop.

The strange man continued to stare blankly ahead, almost no change in his expression at all as the train car swerved along the rail. If he was an inspector, it might be best to establish some rapport with him, thought Gordon. After all, the government funded all that took place at Black Mesa, and Black Mesa payed Gordon's check.

"Er..." Gordon said. Not the best start to a conversation, but the man's unchanging glance and total silence seemed to irk him in some manner he couldn't understand. He coughed, and tried again.

"Excuse me, are you headed down to Sector C labs?" It wasn't really a question, this tram didn't even go below Level Three, but the man might not know that.

The man turned his head and looked at Gordon. There was something about his eyes, an almost hypnotic effect, as if he was trying to read Gordon's thoughts. After what seemed to Gordon an eternity the man looked away, straightening his tie, and said shortly,

"Yes."

"We're performing a big test down there today," Gordon continued. "Will you be observing the experiment?"

For some reason Gordon thought he saw a tiny smile form on the lips of the strange man. But it was gone the next moment, and he was standing just as solemnly as before.

"No," the man said slowly. "I have...other matters to... attend to." He spoke in an odd manner, almost as if he was struggling to find his words.

"Ah, well, I don't know how familiar you are with the facility, but if you need any directions around Level Three I'd be happy to give them to you. I'm Dr. Freeman, Gordon Freeman, with Sector C Anomalous Materials Lab." He extended his hand to the man, but the man continued to stare out, motionless, completely ignoring the gesture. Gordon pulled his hand back. The man stood as quiet as ever.

The train began to slow down once more, approaching the only stop left before the Anomalous Materials Lab. This stop let off at the area just before, the Level Three Administration Offices. The strange man obviously had business with someone higher up on the Black Mesa chain. Gordon wondered why he was here. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that this man came here today and had nothing to do with the paramount test.

As the train came to a halt at the platform, the man turned and walked out the metal door. He adjusted his necktie once again and brushed off his jacket.

"Good luck," Gordon said as the man walked away towards the door to the Administration Offices. The man stopped.

"And...you, Dr... Freeman..." he said without turning around. His voice was cold and hoarse. "...good luck."

It was odd, Gordon thought, how such a positive expression could terrify him so much.

λ

* * *

At last the train arrived at the end of the line, the Anomalous Materials Lab entrance. The doors opened and Gordon stepped out onto the grated walkway, suspended over a fifty foot drop to the concrete floor of the chamber. Why did they have to make it grated? Knowing how far he could fall if something broke was bad enough without actually seeing the distant ground through the bottom of the platform. He was accustomed to it though, and walked swiftly across without looking down. He reached a large security door at least a foot thick of metal. There was a second one just like this at the end of the air lock behind the first connecting the two. The science staff sure liked their security. Nothing could get in without proper authorization. And, thought Gordon with a touch of paranoia, nothing could get out either.

He took out his I.D. card, swiping it deftly through a scanner next to the door. A small keypad popped out of a compartment in the wall, and he entered his pass-code. Lastly, he looked into the retinal scanner mounted by the pad, which ran his eyes through it's database and, satisfied that this was in fact Gordon Freeman, gave the all clear to the system to open the first security door. He walked through into the inner chamber, and the large door slid closed behind. There was a hiss as the air pressurized around him. His ears popped a little as his head adjusted to the controlled atmosphere in the labs. The air settled, and the second door opened. Gordon stepped into the room on the other side, looking up at the large display of Black Mesa's logo hanging on the opposite wall, and the reflective white surface of the ceiling. The lobby of the Anomalous Materials Lab was quite an impressive sight.

The place was unusually busy today, though. Scientists scurried back and forth across the shiny metal floor, checking equipment, and some furiously writing notes on their clipboards. A few were apparently engaged in whispered, but nonetheless heated, debate with each other. The lobby guard, Stevens, sat at the desk in the middle of the room, staring frustratedly at his computer monitor.

"Stevens, what's up?" Gordon shouted, a little too loudly, as he approached the desk. Some of the scientists stared disapprovingly at him, before returning to their quiet arguments.

"Uh, hello Dr. Freeman, sir," Stevens said looking up from his screen. "Running a bit late, aren't we sir?"

"What's the latest?"

"Well I, uh, had quite a number of messages for you, but they all got deleted. I trust you've been informed about the server crash?"

"Yeah, I heard about that."

"Dr. Keller instructed me to tell you that the test is still on, and to head straight down to chamber C-33a when you're suited up," said Stevens. "He's also very disappointed in your, uh, tardiness."

"He said that, did he?"

"Actually there were a few more expletives in there."

"Thanks Stevens, and tell Keller he should get his ass down to my dorm and fix my alarm clock if he wants to avoid my 'tardiness'"

"Should I really tell him that, sir?"

Gordon winked. "If you think you can outrun that wheelchair of his, be my guest."

λ

* * *

Gordon continued on his way to the locker room through the clean white halls of the labs, past numerous humming computer terminals embedded in the walls. As he turned a corner, a small figure suddenly jumped on him, knocking him to the ground.

"Uncle Freeman!" it shouted.

"Alyx, get off of Gordon, you're crushing him!" a voice laughed. Gordon looked up and saw Eli Vance looking down at him smiling. His daughter, Alyx, was bouncing on his chest.

"Aw, it's alright Eli," Gordon said chuckling. He picked the little girl off his chest, and stood up. "My goodness, you've gotten so big Alyx. How old are you now?"

"I'll be seven tomorrow!"

"Ah, that's right," said Gordon, "your birthday's tomorrow. Guess I'll have to get you a present."

"What will you get me Uncle Freeman?"

"How about... a slide rule?" She made a face at this. "Ha, I'm just messin' with you. I'll find you something nice."

"Thanks Uncle Freeman!"

"Alyx," said Eli, "why don't you head back to the apartment?"

"Aw, but daddy, I wanted to see more of where you work."

"Well, maybe some other time sweetie. It's almost time for Gordon and I to start the big test today."

"Okay," she sighed. "Bye Uncle Freeman!"

"Good bye Alyx," replied Gordon waving.

Alyx walked away through the hall, heading to the train platform leading to the apartment complex.

"Letting her take the train all by herself?" Gordon said surprised.

"Eh, she's a clever girl. Knows this place like the back of her hand already."

"You sure Black Mesa is the best place to raise her?"

"I don't know Gordon. But since Azian died I don't really have much choice, if I want to keep working here. We're on the verge of a new breakthrough, I can't quit now."

"What's with the whole 'Uncle Freeman' thing?"

"Oh, it's just a nickname she's given to you. Isaac is 'Uncle Kleiner' now apparently." He laughed for a moment, then his face sank a bit, and he spoke more seriously.

"Gordon..." Eli said. He looked around to confirm they were alone in the hall. "About the test..."

"What's wrong, Eli?"

"It's just... something doesn't feel right. The administration is pushing this thing too far."

"What do you mean?"

Eli rubbed his forehead. "They're upping the power on the Anti-mass Spectrometer."

"What? By how much?" Eli looked straight at Gordon.

"They're running it at one-hundred five percent power."

"_One hundred five? _Eli, it wasn't designed to go nearly that high in the first place!"

"I know, Gordon... Dr. Rosenberg is trying to convince Keller to turn it down, but the administrator is putting a lot of pressure on us to go through."

"But isn't that dangerous?"

"Don't...don't worry too much about it, Gordon." Eli grabbed his shoulder. "Just follow procedure, and everything should go fine. I mean, the worst case is that the Anti-mass blows a fuse and we're left with a very expensive hunk of metal hanging in the test chamber." He gave Gordon a smile. "Tell you what, when this is all done, you come and see me and Alyx, we'll do something fun together...well, as fun as we can find out here in the desert."

"You coming down to the locker room with me?" Gordon asked.

"No, I better head down to the lower labs, get everything finalized for the analysis. You've got five minutes Gordon, you'd better get that HEV suit on fast as you can."

Gordon nodded and turned toward the hall leading to the lockers, starting off on a jogging pace again.

"Gordon!" Eli shouted.

"What?"

"Be careful in there, all right?"

"Come on Eli, " Gordon said with a smile. "I'm always careful. It's just another test." He went around a corner and vanished from sight.

"I sure hope so," said Eli. He sighed, and began his walk to the elevator.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

**Resonance**

Gordon's mind was elsewhere as he ran through the halls. He knew he shouldn't be so worried; this was not the first time the Black Mesa administration had stepped beyond safety boundaries. Most of the lower levels of the facility were in a state of disrepair, with only machines to continue operations. Most of the scientists, including Gordon, had never even been down that far. _Or would ever want to go down that far_, thought Gordon. Truth be told he _had_ gone down below once, to the first sub-basement floor on a bet with Barney. He'd hightailed it back up after glimpsing a flood of what appeared to be glowing green sludge leaking from a large barrel. It was the only time he'd been happy to lose ten bucks.

But despite his general acceptance of Black Mesa's loose standards, this time felt different. Perhaps it was how worried Eli had been. He'd only seen that expression on his friend's face once before, just after Azian, his wife, had died. It was an uncertainty, a fear of the unknown. A fear that now was nagging on the edges of Gordon's mind.

Distracted as he was by his thoughts, he never noticed the man walking frustratedly towards him until the two came to a full collision in the middle of the hallway.

"Damn, sorry," Gordon said hastily, his fears pushed to the back of his mind as he recovered from the bump.

"Freeman!" a voice shouted angrily.

Gordon looked up at the man he had hit and let out a small groan. This was the absolute _last _person he had expected, or for that matter _wanted _to, literally, run in to.

"Dr. Magnusson, er, how... nice... to see you," he said.

Dr. Magnusson scowled. "Watch where you're going, Freeman," he yelled. "How a buffoon like you graduated from MIT is beyond me. And considering I'm a rocket scientist, that is saying something!"

Dr. Arne Magnusson worked in the aeronautics division, or more specifically the "Space and Missiles" department, though both Gordon and Barney preferred to refer to it as the "S&M" department. It consisted of several large converted silos left over from the 1950's, when Black Mesa was still a government missile complex.

Despite the size of the silos, Gordon found it surprising that Dr. Magnusson's enormous ego fit inside.

"What exactly are you doing down here, Dr. Magnusson?" Gordon asked.

"I was having a chat with Dr. Keller about your little tests." Magnusson replied with a huff. "Apparently Sector C is going to be sucking power from the silos all day! It's ridiculous, those pompous big-heads down in Lambda Core think they can just tell me _their_ work is more important than _mine_."

Gordon chose not to point out the irony of Magnusson calling anyone else a "pompous big-head". Now was not the time to try the man's patience. He coughed, looking for a way to get away from Magnusson before he was even later.

"Well, er, I'm sorry to hear that..."

"Don't patronize me, Freeman," Dr. Magnusson snapped. "I hear the sarcasm in your voice. You and that blasted Calhoun, constantly playing your juvenile pranks on me. Stink bombs in the air vents? Important reports replaced with pornography? And I haven't forgotten that little 'mishap' with my casserole..."

"Look," Gordon said impatiently, "I need to get suited up, so let's continue this 'discussion', later, alright?" _If you can find me_, he added to himself.

"Ah, late, are we?" Dr. Magnusson said almost happily. Gordon supposed the slight lack of anger in Magnusson's expression was his version of a smile. "Well, hopefully the administration will at last see fit to fire you. With your record I'm surprised it wasn't done months ago. No doubt that fool Kleiner's recommendation is the only reason you're still here. What that man see's in you, I'll never know." Magnusson shook his head. He gazed down at the watch on his wrist.

"Blast, I'm running behind my schedule now. Unlike you, Freeman, I prefer to be well on time. Hopefully I'll be able to do _some_ work before they shut off all my power." And with that, Magnusson walked off, grumbling on indiscernibly as he went out of Gordon's sight.

Gordon began making his way through the halls to the personnel locker rooms once again. His conversation with Magnusson had dissolved most of the fear from his mind, and Gordon's focus was undistracted as he moved swiftly across the polished white floors. _Just another day to make it through_, he thought. _It'll all be over soon._

_

* * *

_

Eli Vance stood watching the small display count upwards. One... Two... Three... Four. For some reason he found himself thinking it odd that as the numbers went up, the elevator he was in was actually moving down, lower and lower through the areas of Sector C. A trivial, pointless contrast. It was as if his mind was trying to keep his thoughts from the more grave concerns swimming in his head.

The elevator came to a halt. Eli glanced again at the display. Five. His destination was the seventh area of Sector C, not the fifth. Someone else must be headed down. The elevator doors opened, and Eli almost jumped as he saw the man enter.

"What are you doing here?" Eli asked.

The man adjusted his tie, and took a moment to brush off the blue business suit he wore with his left hand. His right hand held in it a small gray briefcase. His words came out almost unnaturally.

"I am merely here to..._insure_... that the test, is to proceed according to my..._employer's_... instruction."

"We've changed the sample, yes. But, what interest does your, 'employer', have in it? Are we looking for any particular data?"

"I'm...afraid... that is...confidential, and my employer prefers... _discretion_... on the subject. Run the... test... and return whatever data you find, that is all that I... ask... of _you_."

Eli was baffled by this man, and his mysterious "employer". Return _all_ the data? Anti-Mass analysis returned massive amounts of raw information. Black Mesa had a specialized supercomputer that would categorize and sift through this information based on certain guidelines. Did this "employer" have access to such a computer? Without one, Eli could not imagine how they would make any use at all of the data.

Eli didn't trust the strange man, certainly not enough to alter important tests, and break safety protocol. He didn't even know his name. But Sector C had orders from the administrator himself to follow the man's orders. The choice was simple: perform this one abnormal test, or lose your job at Black Mesa. Eli had made too much progress at the facility, and wasn't about to lose his one chance at completing his life's work on teleportation. He'd once been offered a position as a professor at his old college, but they couldn't offer the kind of experience and resources that Black Mesa could.

The elevator began to slow down once more as it reached area seven.

"This your floor too?" asked Eli.

"No, I am headed down a bit...further."

Below Area Seven there was nothing but networks of older passages and sewage, eventually leading into the sub-basement floors. Eli had no idea what the man would want down there, but it was no use questioning him. Eli could tell he wasn't one to talk carelessly. Just another mystery to add to an already odd day.

As the elevator doors opened to the seventh area, Eli stepped out of the enclosure and into yet another clean hall decorated with wires.

"Dr. Vance..." the man called back from the elevator. Eli turned back around toward him.

"Yes?"

"There is..._something_... I should tell you..."

"What?" Eli asked.

The man's lips curled into something of a smile.

"Prepare for... unforeseen... consequences."

The elevator doors closed, and the man disappeared. But his words echoed through Eli's mind, and for once he truly wished he'd taken the teaching job at Harvard.

* * *

At last, Gordon reached the locker room. He moved as quickly as he could to his locker, and scanned his I.D. card through a device attached to it. The locker door swung open with a slight creak, revealing a small space filled with his personal belongings: his HEV keycard, an extra coat, his degree, a thermos with some coffee for later, a picture of Gabe Bond's infant son he'd passed around to everyone, and some books. He reached in and grabbed the keycard, slamming the locker door as he turned toward the HEV storage area. He thought he heard the door creak back open, but there was no time to check. Nobody on the science team would steal from another person's locker anyway. Well, _he_ might, but as it was his in the first place he was content in assuming it safe.

The HEV storage area was a small room joined with the lockers. Sector C had three HEV suits, stored in vacuum sealed plexiglass tubes mounted on the far wall of the area. The other two were already gone. Gina and Colette were obviously on time as usual. Gordon swiped his keycard into a computer terminal in front of the suits, and selected the third suit, the orange colored one and personal favorite, with the on-screen display. The plexiglass opened from a break in the middle, and Gordon began to remove it from the container, piece by piece. After removing his lab coat and tie, he proceeded to re-assemble the suit around himself, first the boots, then the legs, followed by the two sections of torso. Each piece was quite heavy, and the suit would be entirely impossible to move by sheer strength in one piece. Instead, the suit used powered hydraulics to assist the user in movement. Though slightly awkward, this made the metallic suit effortless to move in. The only downside was of course that if the suit should have no power the user would be totally unable to move. This was of little concern however, since the HEV suit was specially designed to interface with numerous "power terminals" made standard throughout the facility. These terminals provided energy to just about everything in Black Mesa, which operated entirely on it's own generators. Up above on the surface area of the complex a large hydroelectric dam continuously supplied power to the research center.

After attaching the gloves to the suit, Gordon realized he was missing a piece. Where was his helmet?

"Goddamn it," he cursed. He looked around at the empty locker room. Had he left it somewhere? If he showed up at the chamber, late, and with no helmet, he'd be fired for sure.

"Looking for your helmet?" a voice said behind him. He turned to see Colette Green standing in the locker room door way. She held two helmets, one in each hand.

"You left it in the cafeteria yesterday," she said smiling.

"Thanks Colette," Gordon said smiling back.

"No problem, but be more careful with this thing, Keller's already mad enough at you as it is. Keep pissing him off and I swear he'll figure out how to get out of his chair just to kick your ass."

Gordon chuckled. "Well, we'll see about that."

"Coming to the decathlon later?"

"I don't know, I was going to maybe do something with Eli."

"Ah, isn't it Alyx's birthday tomorrow?"

He nodded.

"Well, I wouldn't want to break up your date with such a pretty girl," Colette said with a laugh.

"Why don't I see if they want to come to the Hazard Course decathlon? If I'm going I might as well have an audience when I beat your record."

"As if," Colette said. "Gina trained me herself."

"Gina trained all of us."

"I mean the _actual_ Gina, not that hologram they use for the course."

"Well," said Gordon, "trained by the 'master' or not, I think I can take you on,"

"Right now?" said Gina, "or after Keller fires you?"

"Oh hell, you're right, I need to get a move on..." Gordon said, suddenly recalling how late he was. "Shouldn't you be down there already?"

"Dr. Keller sent me to fetch you, actually."

"Great," Gordon said sarcastically.

"Don't worry, he's preoccupied with Rosenberg lecturing him now, just get down to the test chamber and he won't even remember how late you are."

She handed Gordon his helmet, and exited out the door. Locking the helmet into place over his head, he waited for the system to boot up. After a few moments a display came up on the inside of the visor, and a computerized female voice began acknowledging which systems were online.

"_Medical sensors activated_."

"_Heads-Up-Display activated_."

"_High Impact Reactive Armor activated_."

"_Atmospheric Contaminant Sensors activated_."

"_Power level one-hundred percent_."

The suit continued to read out conditions as Gordon went through the door after Colette. She was nowhere to be seen in the outer hallway.

_She must have headed down to the lower level already_, he thought. He shrugged and, adjusting to the feel of the suit, began his walk to the test chamber.

* * *

Eli paced around in the nearly empty medium-sized chamber outside the elevator that led to the test area. The chamber was filled with equipment, power lines, computers, and energy generators, and a few scientists checking readouts. A large wall of monitors and switches housed the system that provided control to the test chambers, and that collected much of the raw data from any experiments. All the power circulating in the room created an audible buzzing sound from the equipment.

The loud drone went completely unnoticed by Eli, however. His mind was too preoccupied with what the strange man had said to him. _Prepare for unforeseen consequences. _What did he mean? Did it have something to do with the test? Was it a warning, or a threat? This experiment was getting more suspicious by the minute. The alterations, the risks, and now their mysterious guest. He couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible was about to happen.

Then again, perhaps he was merely overreacting. What chance was there of anything terrible happening? The test wasn't too far from normal. Yes, the sample was bigger than they'd ever analyzed before, but what of it? The Anti-Mass Spectrometer was also being run above regular guidelines, but what of that? There were still failsafes, numerous safety precautions to prevent events such as... well, such as what? A resonance cascade? Impossible. Such a thing was merely theorized, and totally unheard of in any real experiment. Nobody knew just what something like a resonance cascade could do, because none had ever occurred. The known laws of physics predicted that nothing on Earth could ever create one.

_But these samples..._ He shook his head, dismissing the thought. Resonance theory was the basis of his and Gordon's research on teleportation, and he was sure that a cascade scenario was impossible. Every object had a resonance, and could be made to resonate through the synthesis of certain energies. This resonance could, in theory, be used to create small rifts in space. But nothing resonated so much as to cause a rift of the significance that a cascade, a chain reaction of widening rifts, would require.

So, what did the man mean? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. Someone yelled behind him, and he turned around to see a section of the data bank sparking, the glass shielding lying broken on the floor. He ran over to the man who had shouted, another scientist, Steve Newell.

"Dr. Newell, what happened?"

"The system overloaded!" he shouted. "It can barely take the power they're trying to run through these old lines. I can put in a call to a technician, but Sector C has been sealed off for the test, they couldn't come down for a few hours, at least!"

The control systems were overloading, and who knew what damage was being done inside the data banks right now. That was it. He needed to find some way to stop the test. The man's words played back in his head again and again, _prepare for unforeseen consequences. _He must warn Gordon.

He caught a flash of orange at the corner of his eye, and spun around.

"Gordon!" But it was too late. Though he ran as quickly as he could, he could only watch the elevator move down to the test area with his friend inside. Only those with observation clearance could go past this point. He doubted there was any way to stop the test now.

_Don't worry_ he'd said. But now it was the only thing he could do.

* * *

Gordon entered the small observation room preceding the actual test chamber. Several scientists were waiting for him.

"Ah, Gordon, I see you've finally arrived," said one. "The sample has been sent down to the test chamber. I trust you got the memo correcting the sample number to GG-3883?"

"Yes, just last night," Gordon replied. His voice was projected by an external speaker on the helmet.

"Well, good then, I suppose we're all ready to get this started."

"The administration wants as much data as possible from this sample," a second scientists said. "I gather they went to great lengths to get it."

"I'm ready."

"They're waiting for you, Gordon," said a third scientist approaching him. "In the test chamber."

Gordon nodded, and headed towards the door on the opposite side of the room, leading to the chamber. The second scientist walked with him. Gordon himself lacked the clearance to enter the chamber, and someone with a higher level was required to let him through. They also had to let him out, too. _Don't want to piss them off_, Gordon thought to himself with a smile.

The second scientist looked into a small eye-scanner attached to the exit. The scanner light moved over his eyes. After beeping a few times in acceptance, the door slid open, and Gordon stepped into the antechamber.

This chamber was empty except for the door that led back into the observation room, and a much larger metal door marked "C-33/a", the number of the chamber into which Gordon was about to enter. An intercom crackled into life, and Gordon heard one of the scientists speaking over it.

"Alright Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. Just follow standard procedure. I'm opening the chamber door... now."

The large door opened with a grinding of gears, and Gordon walked into the orange-lit chamber. It was quite a sight, though Gordon had grown used to it after so many tests. The hugeness of the room itself aside, the main spectacle was the enormous device that occupied it's center. A mechanical behemoth, the Anti-Mass spectrometer was the pride and joy of Sector C. It consisted of a lower and upper device, the lower embedded in the floor of the chamber, and the upper attached to the ceiling. The lower was merely a housing for samples. The upper device, however, was far more interesting. It consisted of a number of small, barrel-shaped ends attached by metal arm to a large center end. The arms were attached to large metal rotors higher up in the device. The rotors were controlled by a small computer in the upper catwalks of the chamber. It was the first part of Gordon's work in here to turn these on.

Gordon moved over to a ladder attached to the wall and began climbing up to the catwalk. He soon reached the grated metal platform high above the floor. Taking care to avoid looking down, he made his way to the computer terminal on the catwalk. As he approached, the intercom came on again.

"Gordon, if you would be so kind as to start the rotors, we'll hold the Anti-Mass Spectrometer at eighty percent until the sample arrives."

"When will that be?" Gordon said into the mic in his helmet.

"Soon, Gordon, soon. Once we boost to one-hundred five percent, we don't know how long we can keep the device working with the amount of power we have available, so please work as quickly as possible."

"Got it."

Gordon activated the computer, and turned the rotor controls on. The large metal arms began to spin, very slowly at first, but soon at a steady pace. Gordon climbed back down the ladder to the floor.

"Activating stage one emitters," the same voice said over the intercom. A thin beam of energy played across the upper end of the Anti-Mass spectrometer.

"Stage two emitters going online," another voice said. The thin lines became much larger, and converged onto the main end to create a steady beam shooting into the lower device. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer hummed with an almost living electricity. Gordon's helmet automatically dimmed the visor to filter out too much light from the beams.

"Very good, switching overhead capacitors to one-oh-five percent," the second voice said. There was a pause of only breathing as the scientist read something. "Uh, Dr. Guthrie, are you seeing a slight discrepancy in the dampen... oh, ah, never mind, it's back within acceptable bounds again. Not a problem, I suppose."

Gordon couldn't hear them. The hum of the Anti-Mass had increased enormously as the energy was upped in the system. He could feel a vibration from the device, as if it were actually shaking with power. _The suit will protect you_, he reassured himself. He noticed a red light blinking on the sample delivery system. This was a small platform that connected the test chamber to the preparation area below. It appeared the sample was ready. He walked over to the platform as a specialized cart came up. Housed in the front of the cart was a crystal sample. Like the others he had tested lately, it was a deep yellow hue. But this sample was enormous, far bigger than any he'd seen before. And it buzzed with an energy, so much that Gordon could feel the vibration over the shaking of the Anti-Mass. It was almost like the sample was excited.

Gordon grabbed hold of the cart, and began pushing it towards the beam. Just as he approached the lower device, he thought he saw something on the catwalk. A blue suit...

Then the crystal hit the beam, and Gordon Freeman was flying through the air full speed towards the chamber wall.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

**Rift**

Gordon's body slammed into the rounded metal wall, and he fell down hard on the floor. His head bashed into the back of his helmet, and his vision went blurry. Struggling, he looked up at the chamber. An eerie green light shot out from the Anti-Mass spectrometer. As his eyes adjusted, he saw enormous colored orbs of energy floating around the chamber. There was someone screaming, but it was barely audible over the intense noise of the strange green energy.

He managed to stand up, his entire body aching. His mind couldn't process what was going on; there was just too much. The sample. The sample had hit the beam, and then... what? What was happening?

_A resonance cascade_, said some part of his mind still functioning properly. Before he could think further on the matter, he by chance looked upwards to notice the upper device falling rapidly downwards a moment before it smashed into the floor where he stood.

* * *

Darkness. Silence. Nothing. There was... nothing. _I'm dead_, he thought. But wait... not nothing... He reached out a hand, and felt contact with a bumpy wall. A slippery, bumpy wall. _A cave?_ he wondered.

_Freeman..._

A voice...

* * *

The buzzing was almost unbearable. Gordon opened his eyes, and realized he was back in the test chamber. The upper device lay strewn in pieces on the other side of the room. The green energy was still flowing all around. It seemed to concentrate in the center of the room, forming some sort of hole in the air. _A rift in space_.

Suddenly the room began to pulsate, the air stood still, and everything stopped moving-

* * *

He splashed into a puddle of water. Or what he assumed to be water. His mind was concentrating less on the identity of the liquid and more on the slimy, two-legged squid-like creature standing in it. It let out a screech, and spit a glob of burning acid directly at him. A flash of green, and the acid landed harmlessly with a plunk in the strange liquid.

* * *

They looked curiously at the newcomer. This strange alien who had appeared so suddenly in their midst. No doubt their master already knew of his presence. The alien wore a suit of an odd color, if only their eyes appreciated color the same as the alien. It was quite an ugly creature, all in all. But as quick as it came, it went. Something big was about to happen... they could feel it.


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

**Unforeseen Consequences**

What was that ringing sound? Gordon groaned. Goddamn alarm clocks. He hated them, every one. He reached out a hand, but couldn't seem to find the thing. Fighting off a terrible ache in his head, he slowly opened his eyes. _Gloves?_ he wondered, staring at the hand in front of him. Then it all came back.

_What the hell happened?_ he asked himself, staring up at the ceiling of the test chamber. The upper section of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer was missing, and in its place sat a jumble of loose, sparking wires. Tilting his head upwards he located the device sitting in a pile of metal rubble on the opposite side of the room, clearly broken beyond any hope of repair.

He lifted himself up, and immediately wished he hadn't. A sharp pain ran through his whole body. _I hit the wall,_ he remembered. He looked to his right, noting the Gordon-sized dent in the side of the chamber. _Ouch._ Hurting with every motion, he turned around. The chamber door was open, or more accurately, gone, laying smashed on the floor in front of the exit. Stepping carefully over the huge metal plate, Gordon moved into the ante-chamber

Gordon certainly wasn't squeamish, but the sight of blood covering the floor made him freeze. A dead scientist lay sprawled on the ground, his lab coat matted in red stains. Gordon wasn't sure of the man's name, but he recognized him as one of the analysts from Sector C who had greeted him outside the test chamber. _He was trying to let me out_ thought Gordon with a sudden pang of guilt. No, _it wasn't my fault, _he told himself. Whatever force had ripped the enormous door out of place had obviously been this man's demise.

Gordon turned his attention to getting out of the antechamber and back up to Sector C. There was no telling how much damage had been done. _And if what I think just happened really did,_ he thought, _there's no telling what _could_ happen. _He looked at the security door separating him from the lower test area. The door was locked tight, and only opened with proper identification. A hand-scanner panel sat attached to the wall next to the door. Gordon slipped off his right glove, stuck his palm on the glass, and waited as a laser moved over his fingers. The device beeped.

"Authorized personnel only." the scanner said in a deep synthesized voice.

"Damn it." Apparently, Gordon's Level 3 access didn't authorize him to use this particular door. Only the analysis team could get in and out of the chamber by themselves. He would need on of them to open the chamber lock.

Gordon glanced back at the scientist laying on the floor...

* * *

Somewhere, the strange being awakened, and stretched its conscious throughout space and time. It understood neither as most creatures did, and now it could feel a new presence, tugging on its mind. For ages it had governed this void, shelter to the outcasts of a thousand worlds. Prisoner to forces that sought to control it. The gap he had felt could not be allowed to close...

It was time.

* * *

Gordon groaned as he dragged the analyst's body over the metal floor to the hand-scanner. It was not because the task required any great effort on his part: the HEV suit's powered hydraulics did most of the work for him. _No,_ thought Gordon sarcastically, _its probably the whole dragging the dead scientist bit that's bugging me. _He hadn't even known the guy, but that didn't make hauling his bloody corpse across the antechamber any easier.

At last he reached the security door. Propping the analyst's body against the wall, Gordon dropped the dead man's motionless hand onto the scanner. It fell with a sickening thud on the glass. The laser played across the pale palm, and once again beeped.

"Error. Could not read hand input."

"Come on!" Gordon yelled at the scanner. He pressed the scientist's hand on the glass a second time.

"Error. Could not read hand input."

"Damn it!" he shouted. In a rage he punched the device, shattering the glass panel on impact. The scanner fizzed and sparked for a few seconds, then a light inside switched from red to green, and the security door slid open with a mechanized grinding.

Blinking in surprise, Gordon stepped through into the lower test area.

* * *

Gordon moved as quickly as his aching legs would allow him to through the lower halls. There were red lights flashing everywhere, and the constant drone of the emergency siren echoed through the passageway. Broken glass and loose wires lay all over the floor, and Gordon tried his best to ignore several dead science team members scattered amongst the debris. There was no time to dwell on them now: he needed to get upstairs and find Eli... assuming his friend was even alive.

He pushed the thought away. Eli had to be alive. And he'd know what to do. As a member of Black Mesa Gordon had been prepped for a number of disasters, but not something like this. Whatever had happened in the test chamber had heavily damaged what he could see of Sector C. _Maybe even all of Black Mesa. _Gordon quickened his pace.

Coming to the elevator leading up to the databanks, Gordon pressed the button to call the lift down to the lower halls. Nothing happened. The only other way up was a rickety metal maintenance ladder, that just _might_ hold up the weight of the HEV suit, a risk he'd rather not take. He pressed the button again, but still there was no response from the panel. Frustratedly he jammed his palm on the button as hard as he could, and, after what sounded like a small explosion coming from the upper levels, the elevator came hurtling down, past the floor where Gordon stood, and crashed into the bottom of the shaft with a spectacular bang. Gordon peeked over the edge of the shaft at the flaming wreck. The maintenance ladder would have to do.

* * *

Reaching the top of the ladder, Gordon stepped out of the elevator shaft and into the databank room. The usual hum of electricity that filled the area was replaced with an eerie silence. All the computers appeared to be dead, masses of wire protruding out of broken sections in the servers. A light panel in the ceiling had gone out, leaving the room only partially lit. Two figures, one standing over the other, were hunkered in a corner by the ruined databanks, their faces masked by the shadows. Gordon approached them wearily. One of them moved, standing up, and turned slowly to face him.

"Gordon!" it said, stepping forward into the weak light. It was Eli.

"Eli, damn it's good to see you," Gordon said, removing his helmet, relieved to have found his friend in one piece.

"Gordon, what happened? Down in the chamber? How did you survive?"

"I don't know. I put the sample into the Anti-Mass, and it must have triggered..."

"A resonance cascade," Eli finished. Gordon nodded solemnly.

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing to other man in the corner where Eli had stood.

"It's Steve, Dr. Newell, you remember him. He broke his leg in the shockwave. My God, Gordon, it was tremendous, knocked out all the equipment in nearly an instant." Eli shook his head. "I never imagined I would live to see a resonance cascade, let alone create one. What have we done?" As he spoke, his breath became heavier and heavier.

"Calm down, Eli..." Gordon said.

"Calm down? How can I calm down? It's my fault that this happened, I never should have gone along with this!"

"You couldn't have known, Eli. Nobody could have known."

"Don't count on that, Gordon."

Before Gordon could as what Eli meant by this, a low rumbling sound issued from the walls of the room.

"We need to get some help down here," Eli said with concern.

"What about Dr. Newell?"

"Listen, Gordon," Eli said, taking Gordon by the shoulder, or rather that of the HEV suit. "The facility is in shambles. That shockwave probably did more damage than we know. And... there's something else..."

"What is it?"

"There was more to this test than you know... the samples we had... weren't from Earth."

Gordon gave him a quizzical look. "Not from Earth? You mean from space?"

Eli sighed. "No... from another world... another universe, in fact. I know it sounds crazy, but listen. I don't know everything, all the real leaders on the project are in Lambda Core. But Black Mesa has a functioning teleportation system."

Gordon didn't know what to say. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was top secret... I'm sorry Gordon. Maybe if I had, this wouldn't have happened."

"How does it work? The teleport?"

"Not as well as our theoretical model... it's based on the same principle, resonance, but it has something of a side effect..."

"Side effect?"

"The subjects all end up in some sort of... parallel world, I think. From there they can move to their Earth destination via a network of teleports we've created there... but this "other universe", or "borderworld" as they call it... it isn't empty."

"There was something... _living_ there?" Gordon said, his mouth agape.

"Yes, a variety of creatures. I've never seen one myself, but Isaac has."

"Dr. Kleiner told you about this, but not me?"

"It was for your safety, Gordon! The Administration wouldn't have thought twice to fire you if you were a liability. But they need Isaac and me."

"So that's it, I'm just not important enough?" said Gordon.

"I'm sorry, we should have told you. I had been trying to work on a prototype of our design... but I've had no chance since this project began."

The two were silent for a moment, before they felt a second rumble.

"Gordon, I need to get Dr. Newell out of here, who knows how stable these lower levels are, with a broken leg he can't walk by himself... and I have to find Alyx, make sure she's okay at the apartment."

"I can help..."

"No, you need to head for the surface, find a way to call for help. If some of those creatures got through the rift and are running loose through the complex it'll be too dangerous to try and escape. No telling what's going on up there, but your HEV suit will protect you."

"But what about you?"

"Once I fetch Alyx, I'll take her and Dr. Newell down to Lambda Core, using the old train system. It hasn't been serviced in years, but there should still be power to those lines. Lambda is where the science team is supposed to go in case of emergency... though I doubt they had this sort of thing in mind when they thought up those protocols..."

"I'll head down as soon as I get help."

"No Gordon, you worry about yourself. When you reach the surface, get out of here," Eli urged him.

"I can't just leave you, Eli. You, Alyx, and Dr. Kleiner are the closest thing to a family I've got," said Gordon.

They shared a smile. Dr. Newell groaned in pain behind them.

"I'll see you soon, Eli," Gordon said. He headed for the door leading back to the main hall.

"Here, let me get that for you, Gordon." Eli was pointing at the ID scanner on the exit. He slid his card into the device, opening the door. "Hopefully you won't run into anymore doors above your access level, but take my ID just in case."

"Won't you need it?" Gordon asked.

"Those old tunnels aren't secured. Most of the industrial areas of the facility aren't. We shouldn't run into any trouble. You just worry about getting a call out to the military. They can handle the situation. These 'crab' creatures Isaac tells me about won't stand a chance against soldiers." Eli walked back to Dr. Newell and, helping the man up, began heading towards a stairwell that led deep into the sub-levels.

Gordon watched as they went out of sight. _Creatures from another world?_ He recalled the strange beings he'd seen after hitting the chamber wall during the cascade. He'd thought they were merely a delusion, a nightmare brought on by unconsciousness. But now it seemed they were real. And that voice he'd heard...

He rubbed his hand over his face, brushing off beads of sweat. It didn't matter, creatures or not, he had to get help as soon as possible. Eli was counting on him, and so were Alyx, Dr. Kleiner, Barney, and every other person in Black Mesa. He'd always wanted some excitement, and it didn't get much more exciting than this.

_I am definitely taking a vacation when this is through_, he thought. Replacing the helmet on his head, he moved quickly through the exit.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

**Encounter**

Gordon stepped carefully over a large fallen beam. _Eli was right, this place is falling apart. _He jumped over a broken generator, landing with a loud clang as the HEV suit met the metal ground. The impact was rougher than he'd expected, and for a second he lost his balance. As he recovered, he thought he saw something green flash inside a pile of debris in the corner of the hall.

As he came towards the pile, the rubble shifted slightly, as if something inside were moving.

"Hello?" he called to the debris, though he could not imagine how anyone could be trapped under such a small pile. He moved in closer. Suddenly, a brown creature leapt from the rubble with a high-pitched shriek. It was no bigger than a small dog, but it caught Gordon by surprise, and he fell backwards as the creature made contact with his helmet.

"Gah!" he shouted, hitting the floor. The creature continued to screech loudly, moving across the helmet, searching for any way inside. But the headpiece was sealed tight, and, giving up, the creature jumped down on to the floor and began crawling away from Gordon.

Gordon quickly sprang back on his feet, looking wildly around for the thing that had attacked him. He spotted it, moving on the floor.

"What the hell are you?" he said to it. The creature replied with another shriek, continuing it's retreat. Gordon crouched down and followed behind it slowly. When he was close enough to it, he thrust forward and grabbed the thing by the midriff. It squirmed in his grasp, hissing and making a gurgling sound as it tried to escape. Gordon was careful to hold it tightly enough so that it could not get out, but not so hard that his strength, enhanced by the suit, crushed the creature.

He looked over the odd animal. It had four little legs, the two in front longer and sharper than the two stumpier ones in back. It had a light brown, hairless body, with no visible eyes, nose, or ears. Underneath it had what appeared to be a sort of mouth, with numerous pointed teeth and a beak-like section inside.

_Is this what Eli was talking about?_ he wondered. It looked nothing like what he had seen in the cascade. This thing was puny, and seemed to him quite harmless. _Then again, _he thought, _all those teeth must have a purpose_. The creature had made a beeline for his head when it attacked, and had tried to break into his helmet. To it, his brain must have seemed like the gooey filling inside a candy shell. _Eww._

"So, you like heads, huh?" he said to the small thing in his hands. "Picky eater." Eli had said something about crabs, and while the resemblance was stretched at best, he could see why his friend had called it that. Not just any "crab" though. Based on it's apparent food preference, one might call it a "headcrab".

_What a stupid name, _thought Gordon, _I can be more creative than that._ But he didn't have time to sit around thinking of classifications for this thing. Headcrab it was.

"Alright, headcrab, you're coming with me." He might as well bring the creature with him to the surface, for research purposes. And a lot of people would be interested in a real life alien.

_I could even win a Nobel Peace Prize_, he thought, and with the newly christened headcrab still struggling weakly in his hold, he continued down the long hall to the Anomalous Materials lobby.

* * *

"Come on, Steve," Eli said to the man holding on to his shoulder, "we're just about there." He and Dr. Newell had ridden an old electric supply car across the abandoned rail system in the sub-basements from Sector C to the employee apartments. Most of the lower areas were in almost total disrepair, but luckily the track they had used was still powered and in fair condition. The same could not be said for the rest of the system, though. Eli had noticed scores of broken lines on their way down.

It had taken a while to navigate the run-down tunnels, but finally they were right around the corner from the apartments. The rail car was waiting back down in the sub-basement to provide a quick route to Lambda Core for all three of them, once Eli found Alyx. _I'm coming honey, _he thought, anxiously hoping she was alright.

He smelled the fire before he saw it. Turning a corner on the metal walkway he discovered the source of the thick scent filling the transport sector: the apartment complex was burning. Red hot flames shout out of the windows, and the raging blaze could be clearly seen through a large fracture in the upper floors. Though the front of the complex was metal, the insides were partially a decorative wood, and apartments were filled with resident's personal, and flammable, belongings.

Eli's concern turned to paralyzing fear in the instant he felt the heat of the flames on his face. He barely heard Dr. Newell's sharp intake of breath as he too saw the fire.

_No_, Eli thought, frozen.

"Steve," he said suddenly to Dr. Newell, "stay here!"

Dr. Newell nodded weakly as Eli placed him down on the walkway before sprinting into the burning building.

The heat inside was so intense that Eli was sweating as soon as he came through the main door. He coughed as the smoke from the fire flowed into his lungs. Quickly he hunched down to avoid breathing in the poisonous atmosphere, running crouched as fast as he could, working through the burning rubble towards his apartment. Fighting off flames, he could smell gas in the air. The shockwave must have severed a line in the building. A single spark could have set off the entire blaze.

He reached his door and found it locked tight. Coughing, he punched his access code into the a keypad on the frame. By some miracle the system was still operational, and the door slid open. The fire had not spread into the room, but a thick cloud of smoke hung in the air.

"Alyx!" he shouted, nearly choking. He couldn't remain in here long, but he had to find his daughter.

"Alyx!" But there was no reply. Only the crackle of the flames outside the door and the sound of falling debris. He searched through the apartment, but Alyx wasn't there. His vision was blurring as his eyes fought off particles of smoke, and he felt as though he would soon faint. He ran out into the hall of the building.

"ALYX!" he cried as loud as his battered lungs would allow. But still no one answered, and the only movement visible was that of the flames licking the complex walls, igniting whatever burnable materials they could find.

His daughter was gone.

* * *

Gordon could hear someone shouting in the lobby. As he came nearer to it, two gunshots went off. On instinct he crouched down, listening for the source of the fire. The headcrab in his hands let out a shriek in annoyance.

"Die you son of a bitch!" a voice shouted from around the corner. Gordon entered the lobby, and saw Stevens, the desk guard, taking cover behind his post, pointing his gun at something in a white lab coat. _Something_ was as best as he could describe it. It was humanoid, but had long, tendril-like appendages where it's hands should have been, and either it was Gordon's imagination or the creature had a _mouth_ on its stomach, and a familiar brown blob on its head. The thing was walking slowly towards Stevens, two bullet holes visible in its coat. Stevens opened fire with his sidearm again, but although at least three of his shots hit the thing in the chest, it barely flinched, and continued moving steadily toward the guard, trapped in the desk area.

"Damn it!" Stevens shouted, pulling the handgun's trigger vigorously. It was apparently out of ammo, clicking audibly with each attempt he made to fire it. Stevens searched his pockets for another magazine, but the monster was swiftly drawing closer to the guard.

Gordon had to help him. Spotting a glimmer of red metal in a toolbox by the lobby desk, he dropped the headcrab to the floor. It immediately crawled away, into a small vent opening in the wall. _Goodbye Peace Prize_. Grabbing the thing that had caught his eye, he pulled it out from the box. A crowbar. _Better than nothing._

He ran, yelling, at the creature, crowbar raised above his helmet. The thing turned around and shrieked at him, just before Gordon smashed the bar into its head with all his might. A disgusting squishing sound filled the lobby as metal met flesh, and the creature was knocked back. Unrelenting, Gordon slammed it to the ground, repeatedly bringing the tool down on the thing with all the force he could muster. As Gordon struck at least the dozenth blow, the crowbar became lodged in the creature's mutated body. It swung its long arms and hit Gordon in the HEV suit's left shoulder with enough force to push him away and prompt warning messages in the helmet's display. The monster managed to stand itself back up, its chest a battered mess of alien blood. It raised its tendril arms to strike a second time, until a sharp _bang!_ issued from Stevens' pistol, and at last succumbing to it's injuries the creature dropped to the lobby floor in a heap and remained still. Gordon stepped over to it and pulled the crowbar from its chest with a sickening pop.

Stevens holstered his sidearm.

"What was _that_?" he said through quickened breathing, looking down at the dead alien. Gordon hunched over it. Now that he got a closer look, its head, or what was left of it, seemed identical to the "headcrab" he had found earlier. Perhaps this was some other form it could take. In that case, it may have been for the best that he had let the first one go.

"It's like a goddamn zombie," Stevens said. "Just kept coming, no matter how many shots I got off."

A "zombie". Or perhaps a "headcrab zombie". _Ugh, somebody shoot me._

"Why is it wearing a science team uniform? Dr. Freeman?" Gordon wasn't listening. He turned the creature on its back. Doing his best to ignore the terrifying sight of the monster's "mouth", he read the bloody name tag on the lab coat. _Dr. James Guthrie, Sector C._ Why was this "zombie" wearing Dr. Guthrie's uniform...

Then Gordon figured it out.

"Shit!" he yelled, backing away from the corpse.

"What is it?" Stevens asked, surprised by Gordon's sudden outburst.

"It's Dr. Guthrie!"

"Where?" Stevens looked around the lobby.

"No, that thing!" Gordon said, pointing at the dead creature. Stevens blinked.

"Uh, no offense, but is your helmet low on oxygen or something, sir?"

"Look," Gordon said, "I found one of these things earlier..."

"There's _more_ of these zombies?" Stevens asked fearfully.

"No, I mean, maybe, but what I saw wasn't a full zombie, like this, it looked like a kind of _crab_ creature. Like that thing on the zombie's head."

"So... they grow up to be zombies?"

"No, Stevens," Gordon said. "I think they... _attach_, somehow, to a person's head and turn _them_ into one of these monsters." Stevens' eyes widened.

"You mean...?"

"This one must have gotten Dr. Guthrie."

Stevens' rubbed his forehead. "Do you think we could have saved him? I mean, if we knew?"

"I don't think so. That thing really worked its way inside. Guthrie was long gone."

Stevens sighed. "So, what now?"

Gordon stood up. "I'm heading to the surface to send a call for help. Eli, Dr. Vance, thinks the military can help."

"Well, if there's more of these creatures roaming around we'll need all the help we can get. Though you're pretty handy with that crowbar."

"I'll trade you for your Glock."

Stevens laughed. "I think I'll keep what I've got. Besides, the crowbar... fits you, somehow. Wouldn't mind having that suit though."

"Hey, Stevens, you've got a radio, right? Could you call a guard named Calhoun, Barney Calhoun? He's a friend of mine."

"Sorry Dr. Freeman, my radio's dead. Nothing's been working properly since the shock hit."

"What about the trains?"

"Hope you didn't plan on using them to get out of here. The track is completely destroyed outside the labs."

Gordon _had_ planned exactly that. He'd need a new way back to the surface, and fast.

"Is there any other way out?"

"Well," said Stevens, "there is a way down to the maintenance levels through the security room back in the main hall. I can get us inside with my ID. From there I think we can make our way up to the Level 3 Administration Offices. Might be a way topside from there.

"You don't sound very sure," Gordon said skeptically.

"There's so many unmapped areas of this place, it's hard to say what leads where. But it seems like it's the only way."

Gordon nodded. "Alright. Let's go. The faster we get to the surface, the faster we can get help and get out of here."

The two headed down the hall towards the Security Room entrance. Gordon had never been down to the Maintenance levels of Sector C. If they were anything like the rest of the industrial sub-levels criss-crossing below Black Mesa, they were probably worn down, maze-like, and, in this particular case, filled with extremely dangerous inter-dimensional alien parasites. _Well, _thought Gordon, _at least I have a crowbar._


End file.
